The Stroller: 'Shameful'

Saturday

Oct 26, 2013 at 12:01 AM

Greg Pack of Inman says Joe Maple of Spartanburg made some very good observations about fraud in Detroit but failed to answer his question. “How can the conservative Republican governor and Legislature in Michigan justify billions of dollars in tax cuts, which mostly benefit the wealthy, when the state has a city that looks like Detroit?”

By Lou Parrisstroller@shj.com

Greg Pack of Inman says Joe Maple of Spartanburg made some very good observations about fraud in Detroit but failed to answer his question. “How can the conservative Republican governor and Legislature in Michigan justify billions of dollars in tax cuts, which mostly benefit the wealthy, when the state has a city that looks like Detroit?” Mr. Pack wants to know. “Mr. Maple calls my views left-wing propaganda, misinformation and untruths, but these are facts. Mr. Maple does not explain why the states led by conservatives have the most shameful levels of child poverty, child hunger and children without health care. Detroit is America. The vacant car plants in Detroit are the same as cotton mills and other closed factories right here in South Carolina. We should be coming together as a nation to fix this problem, and cutting taxes on the wealthy is not working.”

‘GO SPARTAN HIGH!’: Scott Cheek of Spartanburg doesn’t see eye to eye with Shannon Hall, who defended the Byrnes High School football coach against folks accusing him of showboating. “It is nothing against the players, but once you get ahead by four or five touchdowns, the respectable thing for the coaches to do is to put in the second- and third-string players, which almost never happens,” responds Mr. cheek. “There is more to life than winning, as Byrnes found out against Northwestern. Simply put, respect the other players. They work just as hard as Byrnes from week to week. By the way, I am a Vikings fan through and through. Go Spartan High!”

YIKES!: A New York family decided to leave the city. They bought a ranch out West, where they intended to raise cattle. A month later, some friends visited and asked whether they had picked out a name for the place. “Well,” said the man, “I wanted to name it the Bar-J, and my wife wanted to call it the Suzy-Q, but one of my sons liked the Flying-W, and the other preferred the Lazy-Y. So in the end we compromised and called the place the Bar-J-Suzy-Q-Flying-W-Lazy-Y.” “But where are all your cattle?” asked the visitor. “None of them survived the branding,” replied the rancher.

ODDS AND ENDS: Main Street Trolley’s annual Spartanburg Ghost Tours are underway with paranormal investigator Matt Lovinggood sharing his experiences, including audio and photographic evidence of some of the most haunted places in Spartanburg. “Combining Matt’s local roots and recently unearthed local paranormal evidence, this year’s trolley tour will be outstanding,” says Bryan Henke, owner of Main Street Trolley. The tours begin by taking passengers back to the city’s Hub City era. Lovinggood will describe the unexpected or tragic events that led to deaths and how the deceased’s spirits still remain. The tours also give guests firsthand experience of the tools and science behind a paranormal investigation. Audio and photographic evidence captured over the past eight years in significant buildings or neighborhoods around Spartanburg will be shown on the trolley. Tours will begin at 7 p.m. at the Magnolia Street train station through Oct. 31. The cost of a ticket is $14, and reservations are required. Call 574-9876. u Today’s Dine Around locations for Mobile Meals are A Caribbean Sweetness, 1824 E. Main St., and Yanni’s Place, 2600 E. Main St., Suite C.